Surgeon. Born in Edinburgh, the great-grandson of Dr. Benjamin Bell (1749 - 1806). Bell was educated at Edinburgh Academy and the University of Edinburgh. He worked in the Royal Infirmary in the city, and there started the first training course for nurses in Scotland. However, Bell is best known for providing the inspiration for Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. While a medical student in Edinburgh, Conan-Doyle was impressed by Bell's deductive powers, particularly the part he had played in the application of scientific methods to the solving of crimes (forensic pathology). Bell was involved in several police investigations and undertook an analysis of the Jack-the-Ripper murders in London.
